♪ . martha: a kiss is a kiss but not all kisses are that kiss, bill. bill: that's what i'm talking about. martha: nobody will ever forget that kiss. it is one of the most famous, iconic images in u.s. history. it is coming to the california coast in time for valentine's day. it is 25 foot statue that

recreates the world war ii photo of the kissing sailor in times square. it is getting a permanent on the san diego waterfront. the statue is coming from trenton, new jersey, where else would it come from and will be commemorated on saturday. bill: thank you, new jersey. we talk a lot about the year of the snake. martha: you're into that. bill: i have feelings about it and you do not. what about your feelings about lightning striking the vatican on the day the pope resigns for first time in 600 years? martha: has larger meaning. call me crazy. i think nothing happens by accident. that is a striking image, isn't it? it is a striking image and it could be a powerful image. "happening now" starts right now. bill and i will be back here tomorrow. >> brand new stories and breaking news. jon: north korea's nuclear move. a bomb test puts its one step closer to attaching a nuke to a missile aimed at u.s. mainland.

reaction from the white house and around the world. the president is gearing up for his fourth state of the union address. what's in it? plus the republican's response from the parity's rising star. will he knock it out of the park? new developments in the massive manhunt for the ex-cop wanted for murder. why police think he could have had help escaping and where chris dorner might have gone. it is all "happening now" jon: fallout from north north korea's test. arthel: i'm arthel neville in for jenna lee. after the north announced it successfully detonate ad nuclear bomb with quote, great explosive power, reportedly packing significantly more punch than the device did they tested just four years ago. our intel saying that the blast was six to seven

kilotons. the north is warning there will be more to come. inside north korea, people cheered as the news first broke. the nuclear test seen as a critical step toward north korea's goal of building a bomb that could fit on a missile, a missile aimed right at the united states. president obama reacting today saying, quote, north korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs constitute a threat to u.s. national security and the international peace and security the united states will also con continue to take steps necessary to defend ourselves and our allies. republican congressman ed royce, chair of the house foreign affairs committee also responding saying quote, today's nuclear test by north korea is yet more evidence of its deep commitment to its nuclear weapons program and demands the obama administration's attention. this test comes just weeks after north korean regime stated its goal to develop a

miss till -- missile to strike the united states and mere days after it produced a outrageous video of a missile attack on new york city. just to remind you, we have 30,000 u.s. troops protecting south korea on the demilitarized zone between the north and the south. chief washington correspondent james rosen is live at the state department. james, this is chock-full. >> reporter: and scary stuff, arthel. the u.n. security council in new york just wrapped up an emergency session on this matter. they produced words of condemnation. nothing binding today. u.n. ambassador susan rice was asked earlier if the council would deliver a firm response? her response to the we'll do thl drill. north korea, these provocations do not make north korea more secure. president obama added, in that statement, that he released early this morning. far from achieving its stated goal of becoming a strong and prosperous nation north korea increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through it's ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.

however the regime of kim jong-un already vowed second and third measures of greater intensity if washington presses for new sanctions at the u.n. analysts mean time are busy speculating why the youthful leader chose to conduct the third ses in six years? it to embarass president obama before the state of the union? a parting outgoing shot at the south korean president? a partying present for. also among the unknowns. whether this was indeed a smaller device that was tested as the north claimed and whether it was fueled by plutonium like the first two nuclear tests in 06 and '09 or whether it represents a stunning advance in north korea's experiments with enriching ed uranium. >> there are many believe they're running out of plutonium. they also had a substantial uranium enrichment program for perhaps as long as 10 years. if leaks of gases from this test show it was uranium-based,

that will demonstrate that they have, they have enriched-uranium to weapons-grade levels and successfully tested it. this would be a big breakthrough with potential implications for iran as well. >> reporter: north korea can not yet threaten the united states and its allies with a nuclear weapon. still, analysts now see the hermit kingdom making steady strides towards its gail of marrying a long range intercontinental ballistic missile to a minute at that rised nuclear warhead. martha. arthel: a marriage no one wants to see happen. james rosen, thank you very much. jon: for more on the north korean nuclear bomb test, let's bring in gordon chang. author of the showdown of north korea takes on the world. how ominous is this in your view, gordon. >> north korea crossed two tech sal thresholds. it exploded a powerful device, perhaps a miniature one. it successfully test ad three-stage long-range missile that really means

they have got the means to deliver a nuclear warhead. clearly within five years, maybe even three, the north koreans will be able to threaten any american city. that's ominous. jon: the u.n. security council as we just heard from james rosen has strongly condemned this action. it has pledged further action in its words. do you think the north koreans are particularly frightened? >> no, if they were particularly frightened they would have not tested in the first place. they realize china will protect them? security council. china will not enforce any sanctions that come out of this process. so the usual drill as susan rice said is not good enough. that means the united states needs to take matters in its own hands. we need to put in effect the sanctions the bush administration imposed in 2005 and unfortunately lifted prematurely in 2007 at china's behest. we have to stop north korea from selling this long-range missiles and these nuclear devices to iran. which of means we probably need our navy in waters very close to north korean shores. jon: stop leaning on the

chinese to fresh sure the north koreans? >> we should do that but shouldn't rely on that as the only way. in the bush administration we really looked to china to rein in north korea, unfortunately we placed a greater emphasis integrating china into the international system than disarming north korea. we need to disarm that. we need to disarm north korea first. because we have only a limited numbers of years to do this. jon: what are the sanctions that were in place you would like to see reimpose? >> we cut north korea off from the global financial system. that meant when pongyang wanted to move none any around the world it had to put cash in suitcases to give them to the diplomats who acted as mules and north korea was crippled by those. we need to do that again. jon: we have been so concerned about iran and its development of a potential nuclear weapon. iran and north korea have very deep ties. what's to prevent the north koreans from simply selling a completed bomb to iran? >> very little because they

can sell it through, across chinese airspace which is the way they transferred the missiles from north korea to iran. and so the chinese if they don't want to enforce the sanctions can do the same thing with a nuclear weapon transported from pyongyang. this really means that the united states needs to have a much more difficult attitude towards the chinese because we've sort of given them a pass. we've known that the chinese have been helping the north koreans proliferate this technology and we haven't done anything about it. so we need to have a new attitude. jon: so susan rice's statement that quote, we'll do the usual drill, meaning in the u.n. security council, not good enough for you? >> well certainly not good enough, because the u.n. has been at this sanctions game for about a half decade, actually a little bit more. it hasn't stopped north korea because they know that the chinese will always help them to undercut the sanctions. so sanctions are great and we should try to get more in place but we need to also rely on ourselves and not look just to the u.n.. jon: all right. so if you were president

obama, what would you do? what would you say tonight? >> well i think what we would have to say is that the united states is going to make sure north korea doesn't sell any of this stuff and we will use our navy to do so. we'll put the sanctions into place. we will sanction any nation including china helps north korea proliferate its nuclear weapons technology. we have to remember that the chinese sold mobile missile launchers to the north koreans. those were on display last april 15th in the big military parade. this is come completely unacceptable to not say anything to the chinese about this. jon: this at a time when the united states military is facing the big sequester cut coming up. bad timing it would seem. gordon chang, thank you. >> thank you. jon: turning now to washington we're just hours away from president obama's fourth state of the union address. the president is expected to lay out his second term plan for jobs and the economy and government spending. so what can we expect to hear in tonight's speech? does the sanction from

north korea change anything? joining me now with a preview the anchor of "special report", bret baier. bret, i know you're headed over to the white house in a little while to get sort of a preview of the president's speech. what are we expecting? >> well, jon, that is a lunch with the president that is off the record usually. we'll see what the guidelines are today. usually get some color and some tone and tenor of the day from that experience but we did have breakfast today, television anchors and reporters covering the state of the union address tonight with the house speaker john boehner and sometimes that's off the record as well but today the staff quoted on the record and the speaker said some very interesting things. he said that he did not think, he was not too optimistic, in fact he was pessimistic that the president would seriously deal with the country's spending problem. the deficit and debt problem in the state of the union address significantly and he said this.

quote, i don't think he has the guts to do it. he doesn't have the courage to take on the liberal side of his own party. never has. in fact, the speaker said judging by the tone and tenor of the inaugural address, that quote, i would expect tonight to be more partisan. so those are some interesting comments from speaker boehner. he also said about things that could get done that the house, he believes, will move forward with immigration reform. it has to happen in his mind. and that a team of republicans has been working on it, he said for four years. and that they believe they can move something through the house. we've heard a lot of different things about that, but immigration seems to be something that speaker boehner believes the democrats and republicans can move forward together on quickly. jon: well, given the fact this president just won re-election and, you know, second terms 10 to run out

of gas the farther along they go, i get is is not surprising if the president trots out a laundry list of things he would like to accomplish that would lean more toward the liberal side. >> sure. as you said these are usually laundry is also, they're usually shopping lists of things to get done. of course it tend toward the ideology of the president in the white house. but when you get a leaked message from the white house and the administration that this particular speech is going to be aggressive, that it is going to be pointed. that it is going to be pushing congress, specifically on the sequester, the across-the-board cuts that will happen very soon, that you just brought up. jon: yeah. >> i think that you are getting a signal that this is basically going to be very pointed and speaker boehner is pushing back already with these on the record comments saying that

he is not going to address it. in fact, throughout, when we asked about the sequester, speaker boehner called it the president's sequester. jon: yeah. >> saying that president and the senate democrats have to come up with a plan to deal with it and when asked if the house will move the date, if they can't come to some solution, if the house will move the date back, like, kick it back, so that it doesn't affect the economy, he said, we are not moving it. at some point we have to get serious about our long-term spending problem. jon: that sequester idea was birthed in the white house, right? >> according to bob woodward who was reporting there. that's what he said. jon: bret baier, you have got a busy day today. thanks for joining us. >> yeah. jon: you can catch bret baier on "special report" each and every night 6:00 p.m. eastern right here on the fox news channel. stay with fox news for live coverage and analysis of tonight's state of the union address. our coverage begins at 8:55 p.m. eastern time. arthel: indeed.

as president obama is getting ready to deliver the first state of the union address for his second term republican senator marco rubio, he is preparing his party's response. a look ahead at what we can expect to hear from both of them. and did the fugitive former cop accused of a deadly shooting rampage have help eluding police? a look at newly-released court documents that may shed light on chris dorner's whereabouts. >> for the public regarding his training and capabilities, i will say this. i think we've made it very clear that mr. dorner is armed and dangerous, and very willing to do whatever it takes to carry out some of his threats. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso.

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♪ . arthel: tonight's state of the union address where president obama is set to lay out his second term agenda. then florida senator marco rubio will do something that has never been done before and deliver the republican response in both english and spanish. his remarks will be followed by the tea party's response from kentucky senator rand paul. now all of this comes as new fox poll numbers show just 17% of the americans approve of the job congress is doing. 77% say they disapprove. what can we expect to hear tonight? let's bring in jonah goldberg, editor-at-large, "national review" and a fox news contributor. good to see you, jonah. >> good to be here. thanks for having me. arthel: the gop ears will be wide open. let's talk about the president first. what are they expecting to hear from the president? what might he say that will resonate with the republicans? and how receptive will they be to his address? >> yeah. i mean in terms of what the

republican want to hear from obama it is pretty much irrelevant. he could go on and say, you know, what they want to hear is you've all won powerball. it doesn't mean it will have any effect. all the hints we're getting from obama and from the white house are, basically this will be his inaugural part two. he will be pressing the same talking points he has been pressing since the campaign. get ready -- rid of tax loopholes. pay your fair share. we need to make investments in this, that and the other thing. he could actually win a lot of support from republicans talking about change cpi and entitlement reform and that sort of thing but he is given no indication he wants to have that conversation. president obama is very confident. i think he is in a bit of a bubble. he won the election and he still thinks he should be aggressive in pressing his advance advantages. arthel: we heard bret baier report and he was at the breakfast and speaker boehner gave the remarks

public and gave reaction and speaker pretext, basically if the president doesn't say this, that and the other thing. kind of don't want to hear anything else he has to say. republicans want to hear specifics from the president. perhaps if he doesn't touch on the key topics, spending cuts, entitlement cutbacks, et cetera, they will hear, blah, blah, blah. >> i think it will sound a lot like charlie brown's teacher in peanuts. wa, aw, wa. republicans think they have already raised taxes the way barack obama wanted them to. they agreed to a major tax hike. there are tax hikes in obamacare which the white house keeps denying. they think the tax hike part of all this has been done. arthel: okay. >> and so when barack obama says we can't do anything until we basically close loopholes which he means, raise more taxes, that's a dead letter to the republicans. and so --. arthel: let's hear, you know, some of the by all indications coming out of the white house the

president is going to obviously come out very strong. he has some points he wants to make. quite frankly he is going to do that regardless what anyone has said at this brake fast this morning. let's move on. we'll watch out as it plays out. let's move to senator rubio. he will give the republican response. we know immigration will be top on his list. let's talk about how he needs to frame this message in order to sell it to the more conservative sector of the gop party. >> yeah. i don't know that immigration will be on the top of his list. i think he has got to check that box. i think he has to mention it. he has to talk about it a little bit but rubio is not looking to be the chief spokesman on immigration for the republican party. he is looking to be the chief spokesman for the republican party. arthel: right. >> i'm not sure that the base of the party wants to hear him lead and sort of focus entirely on immigration. ear him talk about jobs and the economy and getting our fiscal house in order. that is message that people want to hear, particularly hearing footsteps from rand

paul who will give the tea party address response as well. i think what rubio has got a difficult, needle to thread here. he wants to sort of appeal and seem presidential and change and soften the image of the republican party and reach out on things like immigration, while at the same time being the standard-bearer for standard republican issues, conservative issues about limited government and free markets. so that's a lot to do in 12 minutes. arthel: tightrope indeed. tell me yes or no, good idea to do the address in both english and spanish, yes or no, good idea. yes or no? >> we'll see how it plays. probably not. some spanish good. lots of spanish, probably not. arthel: jonah goldberg, thank you lobsterfest is the king of all promotions.

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jon: new developments right now as the world reacts to north korea's nuclear bomb test, a test that puts that rogue nation one step closer to attaching a nuclear

warhead to a missile. that could be aimed at the united states. as we await the state department briefing, the u.n. security council in an emergency session just issued a strong condemnation of the north korean regime's latest test. joining us now, mike baker, former cia covert operations officer. rejoining us once again, gordan chang, the author of, nuclear showdown, north korea takes on the world. mike you know through your experience as a cia officer officer the world is dangerous place. did it get more dangerous last night? >> whether they do something, launch another missile whatever it is they're doing, whether it succeeds or fails it becomes more dangerous because they're learning something else. one of the biggest dangers from the program that the north koreans are running the tech transfer that goes on. there is a very robust underground environment between the north korean, iranian, russian, pakistani scientists and in dealing of nuclear technology. i think that's a very, very dangerous element to this. jon: how do we stop that?

>> well the problem is we have very little room left with north korea. we've almost, gotten to the point where we kind of learned to live with this problem and the danger there of course, there are certain people in the administration saying if we can do that with them, certainly we can live with iranian nuclear program. i don't know that, there is not an easy answer to it. jon: it is one thing to live with a north korea that has maybe a nuclear bomb or two. but a nuclear, i'm sorry a north korea that has an icbm capable of reaching the united states, and a nuclear warhead, that's a different thing entirely. >> certainly. the north koreans are on the verge of putting together a usable weapon on top of a long-range missile that can reach just about any city on earth. you talk about how we become accustomed to it. the problem is the north koreans have unstable militant regime. they have a big power sponsor in china. they have friends in iran who are basically financing their program and so i don't

think how you can come up with a more dangerous scenario than this. especially because north asia is already volatile with china, japan, russia, all at each other's throats. jon: i was talking with gordon earlier. he said we tend to lean on the chinese and get them to stop this. he doesn't think that is viable solution this time. >> he is absolutely right. i'm not a buyer somehow we'll pull china on side with us to bring north korea into the fold. i just don't see how we constantly fool ourselves into thinking that. if you look at china, there is lot of people like to make what they do more complex than it is, just imagine what is in their best interests and expect them to do it. it is not in their best interests to promote instability in north korea. therefore they will continue to prop up that regime no matter what we would like them to do. >> they are worried about the collapse of the north korean government, mass starvation, millions of starving north koreans flooding into china. that is essentially what they're worried about, right? >> i think the risk, basically the north korean

refugees will move south into south korea. we have demined at least three corridors through the demilitarized zone. the china nice and core reasons hate each other. it has been that way for 600 years. china is getting very important short term benefits when north korea creates all the provocations. when that happens we go to beijing say, please, please, please help us. of course beijing extracts concessions from us. this is a bad dynamic for us. we should learn this. this happened so many times in the past but we don't seem to understand what is going on between china and north korea. >> wait a minute, gordon, you're not saying we don't learn from history? >> that's exactly what i'm saying, mike. jon: mike nodding his head in agreement with just about everything gordon is saying. wow, what an interesting story. we'll see if the president addresses it tonight. >> absolutely. jon: mike and gordon. thank you. arthel. arthel: new details in the search for accused cop killer christopher dorner.

los angeles police just wrapping up a news conference. we'll have the latest developments. we expect to learn more about president obama's plans for his second term when he delivers his state of the union address. what history could tell us about tonight's big speech.

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los angeles police still say dorner could be anywhere, but authorities are already filing charges against the accused cop killer. prosecutors charge dorner with murder in the death of officer michael crane and attempted murder in the shooting of three other officers. he's also accused of killing martha kwan and her fiance. her father represented dorner in a hearing that ultimately led to his firing from the lapd. we're now getting word a school in southern california is closed after dorner mentioned it in his manifesto. william la jeunesse live with more. >> reporter: police are pursuing basically three scenarios. one, that dorner is hidden in a cabin or dead in a snow bank with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. secondly, he can be off the mountain still stalking victims in los angeles, or, three, he could be in mexico.

if in an affidavit filed by a federal marshal last night, he says that dornerer had an accomplice, someone with the initials of j.y.. dorner identifies jason young as a great friend. the young family had a cabin in big bear, that is why they believe dorner may have been there. that's where, of course, they found his burning truck loaded, now we know, with firearms inside as well as camping gear, heaters, that kind of thing. now, four hours after that truck was found the marshals saw j.y. in orange county in sews that mesa, about 12:45 in the afternoon. four hours after that was found. arguably, that was dorner's ride off the mountain be you buy into that scenario where he'd get another car or a motorcycle. the affidavit also says he could be in mexico. they have probable cause to believe when dorner tried to steal that boat in san diego, he

told the owner that he was taking it to mexico and that was where it could be retrieved. yesterday police in tijuana did raid a hotel there, and they did not find dorner. finally, there is this video now from tmz, surveillance cameras at a sporting goods store, where it shows a person who looks like dorner buying scuba gear, air tanks. he did that kind of training in the navy. finally, at this news conference that just wrapped up we received, we learned that the number of tips coming into the task force rose from 250 to a thousand after that $1 million reward was put out there over the weekend. they say that the city is still pursuing, till trying to protect these -- still trying to protect these 50 families. taking about a thousand officers, basically redeployed to try to protect these families as well as the locations around the city. finally, i'll tell you that they are reopening the case because,

you know, giving dorner this opportunity to say, hey, the killing will stop when i get justice. that, they believe, is why the chief is willing to reopen the case. on the other hand, the prosecutors now saying he'll get the death penalty possibly indicating the prosecutor filing those charges yesterday in riverside county. bottom line here, jon, they still don't know where this guy is. jon: yeah. if he is in mexico, mexico would never extradite him to this country if there's a death penalty on the table. another consideration here. >> reporter: that's actually negotiable now. thank you, jon. jon: oh, it is? that's a new development. >> reporter: yeah. mexico has started doing that. it's been a long process, but even in a few cases they have reversed that and are extraditing people -- not knowing they'll for sure get it, but it has been done. jon: wow. that's news to me. william la jeunesse, thanks for informing me. talk to you soon. arthel: good point though. we await president obama's state of the union address tonight. we are seeing just how much the

president's approval ratings have shifted since he first addressed the nation. according to a new fox news poll today, only about half of all u.s. voters approve of the president's job performance. that's an improvement from around this time of last year's state of the union address but a decline from when president first addressed congress in 2009 which, by the way, was not a state of the union because incoming presidents are not required to deliver a status report so soon after taking office. doug brinkley is a presidential historian and professor of history at rice university. good to see you. >> thanks for having me. arthel: so let's talk about this. i want to know if you, if there's any state of the union addresses from recent history that perhaps president obama will want to channel in terms of layout and message. and that said, what are you expecting the president to say to sort of go over his to-do and set the tone for his second term? >> well, what they do at the white house is a lot of other state of the union addresses,

there's some in history that have been very kinetic and important going back to, you know, james monroe in 1823 with the whole monroe doctrine, protection of the western hemisphere was from the state of the union. lyndon johnson launched his war on poverty if his state of the union, and george w. bush famously with the axis of evil pointing out iraq, iran and north korea as being our seminal and main enemies. but there are moments when these states of the union matter, but this one is going to have to be focused on jobs, on employment, on how to get the economy going again. president obama did not touch on that theme during his inaugural address, so everybody's expecting he will try to make this a major economic statement and also deal with newtown and gun control as key components of this address. arthel: and the president is believed to, expected to rally the troops, get the americans involved in the democratic process. so how does he rally congress and get them engaged in the process of law making?

>> well, you know, state of the unions have changed. i jefferson would just write them and never deliver them. but when television came starting with harry truman, these have become tv spectacles. we're all watching who's sitting in the peanut gallery, who's standing, who's not, who's clapping, who isn't? it's theatrics tonight. he's having a hard time doing wiz with congress, so in many ways this really isn't talking to congress. he's talking to the american people in their living room and needs to move them forward on his vision of how to create jobs in america. clean energy jobs, infrastructure. it's also an opportunity for him to thank the troops in afghanistan and our troops all over the world. that's usually the one crowd pleaser where everybody stands and applauds when you say thank you to the troops. but we've got a big crisis coming in march looming over our economy with the sequestration, and this will be seen in history as how obama is trying to make his sale, um, for his economic

program and what we need to do with the debt right now. and we'll have to see whether it tracks or not. arthel: and with that said, how much do you think the president's legacy will be on his mind tonight? >> well, i don't know if it's so much -- i think the second inaugural was all legacy. it was about selma and stonewall and, you know, seneca falls, putting him in the social justice movement. i think this one is down to business. i mean, he's got to deal with these economic crisis at hand. so it's really about what do we do to jump-start the economy more right now. i think it's less of a legacy speech than a way to motivate the american public. and the only indicator we're going to have is what kind of rise he gets in the, um, polls. and also marco rubio tonight making the response. many people think he's a potential front runner for the republican nomination in 2016. so i think that listening to rubio will be of great interest also. arthel: okay. well, we will be watching. douglas brinkley, thank you very much for your time this morning.

>> thank you. arthel: yeah. jon: the young ads woman who admits -- arizona woman who admits stabbing and shooting her boyfriend to death is back on the stand today. the question is, why did she do it? the latest from the jodi arias murder trial just ahead. plus, more than $16 trillion in debt and counting, does the government have a spending addiction? one top gop senator says, yes, and failing to break it could cost us. >> needless to say, we can't go on like this forever. eventually, we are simply going to run out of money. and no tax increase, no matter how high, will be enough to save us. arthel: senator john thune will be our next guest. stick around.

arthel: and new next hour, he is a rising g work p star, and tonight senator marco rubio will give the republican response to the president's state of the union address.

what we can expect to hear. a prisoner being transferred makes break for it. his daring escape and the efforts to catch him. new help on the way for more than 4,000 people on a cruise ship stranded at sea, what the coast guard is doing now. we're live at the breaking news desk. jon: government spending and the economy sure to play a major role in tonight's state of the union address as well as the gop response. even though president obama has said the u.s. does not have a spending problem, a new fox poll shows americans overwhelmingly believe the country's pursestrings are way too loose. take a look at this. a whopping 83% of americans say the federal government does have a spending problem. south dakota republican senator john thune agrees saying washington is addicted to spending your money. >> at $16.4 trillion, our nation's total debt is now larger than our entire economy. this means that every man, woman and child owes a $53,000 share

of this debt. that level of spending is unsustainable. the only way, the only way to dig ourselves out of this hole and put our country on a sound financial footing is to get spending under control. jon: senator john thune joins me now from the capitol. senator thune, president obama won re-election in part touting the same thing that got him through his first term which seemed to involve a lot of government spending. how do you turn that around? >> be good question, jon. and i expect tonight we'll hear in the president's address a lot about investing, investing in this and investing in that which is code for more spending. but that should send red flags up for all americans, because in order for this government to spend more or, the president is going to have to raise taxes more. we cannot continue to borrow like there's no tomorrow. and that's what we're doing right now. if you look at the financial picture for the country we're, as you said, already $16 trillion in this debt, we're

going to add another $10 trillion over the next decade according to the congressional budget office. we've got to get spending and debt under control. the president has not been serious about that, and i hope tonight he will get serious about controlling spending and debt and getting the economy growing again and creating jobs for working class americans. jon: you said in that republican radio address that you gave a couple of weeks ago, you said that reducing our spending and debt will jump-start our economy and create jobs and opportunities. the president sees it just the opposite. he says you create jobs and opportunities by spending government money, taxpayer money or money that we borrow. >> and that's the great contrast that we have here, jon. this is a very different philosophy about how to get the economy growing again. if you look at the last four years, the president doubled down on growing the size of government. what do we have to show for it? we've had chronic high unemployment, sluggish growth, massive amounts of new debt, and if you look at the history of countries throughout history, you'll find that when you get debt that exceeds or debt as a

percentage of your gdp exceeds a certain amount, then you get fewer job, you get a slower economy. and that's what we're seeing in this country right now. our debt to gdp, gross debt, is now over 100 president. that puts us in the category of countries in europe. and, obviously, we don't want to end up like greece. that's where we're headed, so it really does come down, i think, for the president to be willing to acknowledge we've got a debt problem, we've got a spending problem. the 17% of the people in your survey, the 83% get it, understand that we have a spending problem. the 17% seem to be here in washington, d.c. because it's the last place that we're getting that message across. jon: also in that poll we asked people about the country's big issues, what are they extremely concerned about. 32%, the number one issue, the most concerning issue for americans, 32% said government spending is their top issue. the president doesn't see it that way though. >> well, he doesn't. and, again, i mean, he comes from a very different view of

the world. he really believes that government is the answer, and i think most people across the country still understand that the genius of america comes from our private economy, from the people out there who are creating jobs. and if you want to improve the overall standard of living, the quality of life for middle class americans, the way that you do that is you get your economy expanding and growing again. and the president has a prescription for that that consists of growing government, raising taxes, making it more difficult, more expensive to create jobs in this country. that's the wrong prescription for the future. now, again, i hope this evening -- i'm trying to be optimistic and hopeful about this that the president will have a serious plan for reducing spending and debt and for growing the economy and creating jobs. but we're not holding our breath based on past experience. and, of course, as you know in the last two years, the president has submitted a budget to congress which hasn't received a single vote, a republican or a democrat vote in east the house or senate -- in either the house or senate which suggests he is just not serious about this issue. it's time for him to get serious, and we want to work

with him when he does. jon: senator john thune, it's good to have you on. thank you. >> thanks, jon. arthel: the vat tan preparing for a -- the vatican preparing for a conclave of card knells following yesterday's bombshell announcement. hey, it's sara. i'm going pro. i've been using crest pro-health for a week. my dentist said it was gonna help transform my mouth. [ male announcer ] go pro. for a clean that's up to four times better, try these crest pro-health products together. [ sara ] i've been using crest pro-health. so far...it feels different.

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arthel: just 24 hours of pope benedict vxi shocked the world by announcing his resignation, speculation is already swirling about who will replace him and how the catholic church will operate in the interim period without a leader. amy kellogg is live in rome. amy? >> reporter: hi, arthel. well, one of the pope contenders, peter turkson of ghana, said that the new churches of asia and africa now

are mature enough and ready to produce a pope, and that would be a good thing, arthel, because anywhere between a half and two-thirds of the world's catholics are part of this southern church. now, the process of choosing a new pope will get started around mid march. it was revealed today by vatican officials that pope benedict vxi had had a pacemaker for years and that three months ago he had had those batteries replaced. of but that did not have an impact on his decision to step down. that had not gotten in the way of his duties at the time either. we caught up today with some tourists on st. peter's square including a young belgian man who wants to be a priest. here's what he had to say. >> i really hope it's not a european, actually, to to make clear that the church is more than just rome, it's something worldwide. that, yeah, it's not only european or rome or italian, but from the whole world. >> reporter: now, arthel, of

course, the issue of keeping young people in the church, or n., bringing -- in fact, bringing young people into the church has been very important, and this pope has tried to work on that. but young people i spoke with today on st. peter's square were saying for the next pope it's not about twitter, it's not about a facebook page, it's about communicating the positive aspects of the church and the relevant aspects of the church in the modern age to young people. and that's not about social media. it's just about having the savvy to do that. a lot of these people are hoping the next pope will be a bit younger. but, again, this is all a process that will play itself out in the halls of the vatican, the sistine chapel and, hopefully, we will know the answer by easter sunday. arthel, back to you. arthel: thank you very much, amy kellogg. jon: another big story we're covering, reaction here at home and around the world to north korea's dramatic announcement that it successfully tested a nuclear bomb. why this is a big step forward for that rogue nation's nuke

program and its efforts to be able to reach the u.s. with a ballistic missile. we'll go in depth, next. ♪

jon: meeting in emergency session, te u.n. security council strongly condemns north korea for its latest nuclear test. and on trial for murdering her boyfriend, jodi arias making shocking allegations of the man she admits killing, accusing him of offering illegal and disturbing images. so will the judge offer testimony against a dead man who can't defend himself? plus, the vacation cruise gone really wrong, on its third day without power. a cruise ship with thousands of

passengers limps back to port. why the coast guard won't send aircraft in to help. ♪ arthel: north korea fires a shot across the bow testing a nuclear weapon just hours before president obama's state of the union address. welcome to a brand new hour of "happening now," i'm arthel neville in for jenna lee. jon: good to have you here, arthel, i'm jon scott. today's atomic blast was the most powerful ever by north korea. president obama calls it a highly provocative act. arthel: but north korea warns it will continue nuclear testing to create a warhead small enough to fit on a ballistic missile, and swift reaction on capitol hill blasting the obama administration, the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee, republican ed royce, is calling on the administration to replace what he calls a failed north korea policy. chief white house or correspondent ed henry is live on the north lawn. ed, do we expect the president

to mention this north korea mess in his state of the union speech tonight? and if so, if i may, how does it fit into his agenda? >> reporter: sure, arthel. bottom line is the president's aides say he is likely to mention this essentially failed test by the north koreans tonight. they are deeply concerned here at the white house, though, that know keeps doing these tests. as you say, the president put out a written statement calling this provocative, and they're basically saying, though, in the end it didn't really work, is so they don't think north korea is as far along in their nuclear program as certainly north korea hopes. nonetheless, we think the president will mention it, not dwell on it tonight. instead, he wants to talk about the economy and jobs according to top aides. if you go back to his inaugural address, he only mentioned the jobs twice in that speech, mentioned the word economy once. he talked about climate change, gay rights, other things. there's a lot of talk here about the president pivoting back now to jobs and the economy. and gene sperling, one of his

top economic aides today, said we'll hear a lot about the economy, deficit reduction and entitlement reform. take a listen. >> with we need to reform programs like medicare in a way that still protects that basic guarantee. unfortunately, negotiations, you know, speaker boehner decided to break off associations last december with the -- negotiations last december with the president. that was unfortunate because president obama had significant entitlement reform. >> reporter: you can hear right there gene sperling going after speaker boehner. we're told by some of the president's aides we can expect sort of a tougher tone from the president tonight in terms of, as opposed to sort of reaching out to congress. he realizes this is one of his last chances to have the megaphone in a state of the union before he's really a lame duck president, so he's going to try to prod republicans on some of these issues like jobs and the economy but also deficit reduction as well, arthel. arthel: speaking of speaker boehner, he's going to be sitting right behind the president tonight, and he has harsh criticism of the president's leadership on entitlements as well as the

economy. >> reporter: that's right. almost a tradition now, the speaker has a little breakfast with reporters before the state of the union. he did that today, bret baier was there, and the speaker really ripped into the president saying, among other things, quote: i don't think he has the guts to do it. he doesn't have the courage to take on the liberal side of his own party, never has. and what the speaker was suggesting was that he thinks we'll see a more partisan president tonight, not someone who's going to be reaching across the aisle. and when you listen to some of boehner's colleagues like kathy mcmorris rogers, they say they're waiting for the president to get serious about entitlement reform. take a listen. >> president obama hasn't recognized that we had a spending problem east. you think back to his first inaugural address, and he said he was going to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term, and we've seen record deficits, record spending, trillion dollar plus deficits for as long as president obama's been in office. >> reporter: a look at our or latest fox news poll from last

week, we asked among other things what's your number one priority, the thing you're sort of most passionate about. dealing with government spending was number one, and yet we're hearing from the president's aides he'll be talking more tonight about investments in education, other programs. investments another word for spending, arthel. arthel: and we'll see how that goes over. ed henry, thank you very much. jon: marco rubio will give the republican response to the state of the union address. tonight will be senator rubio's chance to really shine. chief national corps 1307b9 jim angle is live in washington. the big question, jim, why senator rubio? [laughter] >> reporter: well, the answer to that question is pretty easy. there is no question that senate rubio -- who was only elected in 2010 -- is already a star in the republican party, and that's why he'll give the official response to the president. listen. >> if there's one thing that republicans learned from the

november election, that they need to do a better job of attracting hispanic votes. so the combination of rubio's eloquence, star power and his positions on immigration and other issues of interest to hispanics makes him really unbeatable for this position. >> reporter: young, hispanic and articulate. time magazine went so far as to put him on the cover of the magazine with the headline, "the republican savior," calling him the new voice of the republican party. in fact, he's authored bipartisan jobs legislation with plans for education and small business as well and, of course, a carefully-crafted immigration plan likely to draw bipartisan support. that is an issue close to the hearts of cuban-americans. listen. >> i didn't read about this in a book. i didn't watch some movie last week about immigration. i lived this issue on a daily basis. i live in a family of immigrants, married into a family of immigrants in a neighborhood of immigrants n a community of imfronts.

>> reporter: now, rubio's trying to show a welcoming face at the gop on legal immigration while firmly discouraging illegal immigration. tonight he'll talk about spending, taxes and the cost of big government on which he's taken firm positions. as he gives the republican response to the state of the union in both english and spanish for the first time ever. a lot of symbolism will this as well. rubio is considered a solutions-oriented lawmakers who plans to roll out legislation in the coming weeks. in short, analysts say rubio is what republican leaders hope their party will become. jon? jon: and a lot of people are going to be paying attention tonight. >> reporter: you bet. jon: jim angle, thank you. keep it here for full coverage including full political analysis, fair and balanced. tune in, 8:55 p.m. eastern tonight right here on fox news channel. arthel: and, jon, "happening now," new concerns north korea

is getting closer to developing a ballistic missile that can carry a nuclear warhead. the rogue nation announcing on state tv it has detonated a miniaturized nuclear device after international monitors detected considerable seismic activity at the country's nuclear test site. the united nations and president obama quick to condemn the north's actions. mr. obama calling the latest nuke test a provocative act that threatens the world community, and in north korea's democratic neighbor, south korea, angry protesters in seoul burning a north korean flag calling for a strong punishment. international security expert jim walsh and also research assistant at mit securities studies program, joining us now. the u.n. security council held a special meeting regarding in this morning issuing strong condemnation. nothing seems to deter him. so do you think that it's going to get to the point of having

military action that'll stop him? >> well, that would be quite a roll of the dice. we've seen that before. that was called the korean war, and that was a pretty bloody affair. it's certainly what no one wants. the chinese don't want that on their doorstep. we have 23 thiewrkz u.s. servicemen and women on the peninsula, and, of course, the korean peninsula would be destroyed if we had an all-out war. i hope that's not what's going to happen, but there's a danger of that because we have new leaders in all the major countries. north korea's being provocative. it just has to take someone making a mistake or a miscalculationing and whoosh, you know, suddenly you can have an escalation. today, actually, arthel, i worry more about that danger, that danger of accidental war or miscalculation than i do about the nuclear test itself. that's a problem, that's going to be a problem over time, but today i worry about up tested leaders in a -- untested leaders in a tense and dangerous region. arthel: and you're talking about who in particular?

>> you have new leadership in china, new leadership in korea, kim jong un is only 23 years old. japan had an election a little while ago, so everyone is new here. arthel: yep, that's true. let's talk about china, though, because as some of our guests earlier, they were saying, hey, listen, maybe the u.s. should put sanctions on china and pressure on china. is that a possibility? >> you know, people always talk about this, you know, this is our third test now, and folks always say that. it hasn't happened, and i don't see it happening. number one, china's our biggest trade partner. i mean, they're, you know, a member of the u.n. security council, permanent member with a big economy that we do a lot of business with. i think it's unlikely we'll sanction the whole country. we might try to go after individual chinese firms that do business with north korea, but we're already doing that. we've had sanctions, our policy has been a sanctions policy for the last five-plus year, and we're now in this thing where it's provocation, sanctions, provocation sanctions. and, you know, if we have 101

sanctions is really going to change the deal. i kind of doubt it. arthel: so what's the solution? there probably isn't -- i don't mean to throw that out there because, really, that's not a one -- that's not an easy answer. >> no. you know, it's not. and i wish i had a solution. you know, clearly, the current policy isn't working, right? things aren't working. we know that doesn't work. what will work, it's hard to say in part because it's hard to know what north korea's logic is. almost all of us get things wrong. very hidden, very opaque, hard to know what's going on. in some ways the policy is understanding your adversary. at some point we can't reward bad behavior, but we have to start talking to them, and we have to take steps to reduce the chance of a crisis or a crisis escalation. i think those are the two things i would focus on. but i don't expect big changes. i assume the u.n.'s's -- u.n.'s going to issue more statements, there'll be more provocations. arthel: all right, jim, thank

you very much for your analysis this morning and, jon, we have more to come on this show. jon: that's right. from immigration, gun control and health care in his inaugural address, president obama is expected now to discuss the top issue on voters' minds, the economy, in his state of the union address tonight. details on his plans to try to get america back to work and yet another possible stimulus plan. that's coming up. and the vatican confirms pope benedict underwent a serious medical procedure recently but says it did not impact his decision to resign. what it was and what role, if any, the pope will play in choosing his successor. when you have sensitive skin, anything that touches your face can feel like this. don't let itet to you. ♪ try mach3 sensitive, with three high-definition blades. a closer shave in a single stroke,

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jon: president obama expected to cover a lot of ground in tonight's state of the union

including immigration, guns and afghanistan. but with the nation's economy shrinking in the fourth quarterover -- quarter of last year, our next guest says the president's speech should focus on one thing: jobs. joining us now, republican senator john barrasso of wyoming. you say the president didn't even mention the word "jobs" in his inaugural address. you want to hear more about that tonight? >> the american people want to hear more about that tonight, jon, and thanks for having me. when you ask the american people what they're concerned about, et and spending. the president never said the word "jobs," never said the word "debt" in his second inaugural address. he really needs to focus on it tonight. now, the press is reporting that he is going to pivot to jobs. well, this is about the eighth time in the last four jobs that the president is now pivoting to jobs. jon: well, the president, as you know, is a very eloquent speaker and a good salesman, and when he says we need to make investments

in things like infrastructure or education, we need to spend government money to make those investments to build an economy that will last, isn't he talking about jobs? >> well, one of the things when you talk about increased spending, americans believe as they send their hard-earned taxpayer dollars to washington that they get or very little value for that money, that less than half of what they send is actually, they believe, used efficiently. the president talks about additional education which is important, but we have all of these recent graduates and people ready to graduate having a very hard time finding jobs in the area for which they trained, jon. so there are a couple of things the president could do immediately to help the jobs market. one, of course, is to approve the keystone xl pipeline to help us also with our energy security. the other is to approve the free trade agreement with europe that will help both the united states as well as europe, and it will help employment. jon: i don't know a single family that hasn't over the last

few years sat down, taken a hard look at its budget and just found some ways to cut back because, you know, as you mentioned, there are a lot of people hurting out there. why has the federal government not been able to do or not been inclined to do the same thing? >> well, the president's budget in the past that he's submitted, always late, has been dead on arrival, hasn't even gotten any democrats to vote for it. harry reid has not had the senate majority pass a budget in the last four years. the senate, the last time the senate passed a budget was actually before the ipad had been invented. so you talk about how far ago that's been. families have to balance their budgets. most states like my home state of wyoming, we balance our budget every year. i believe we need a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. the president continues to oppose those sorts of things. jon: well, the president has said he doesn't think the federal government has a spending problem. 83% of americans disagree with him according to our latest fox news poll.

they say they think government does spend too much money. why the disconnect? >> well, and nancy pelosi said the same thing this weekend on one of the talk shows. americans know the problem in this country is that we spend too much, not that we're taxed too little. and that's where the republicans and i are specifically focusing our attention on trying to get the spending under control which is what american families have been doing, what the nation needs to do right now, jon. jon: i'm sure we'll see you there in the gallery at the state of the union tonight. thanks for spending some time with us today, senator john barrasso, republican from wyoming. >> thank you, jon. arthel: more than 4,000 people 12r57b8ded at sea with no power, little water and toilets that don't work. plus, brand new information coming from the vatican after the pope's stunning announcement. what went into the pontiff's decision and whether he'll play a role in choosing the next pope. >> we're very much, um, in

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arthel: right now the catholic church faces a major challenge one day after pope benedict announced his resignation. we are learning more about the pope's health and what's going on behind the scenes at the vatican. shepard smith is live in rome with more details. hey, shep. >> hi, arthel. arthel: so what's going on there? it's a big scramble. people were shocked. we just heard from amy kellogg, in fact, interviewed a young boy from belgium who wants to be a priest, and he says, hey,

listen, he doesn't want the next pope to be a european. let's let everybody know the catholic church stretches worldwide. what are you hearing? >> i hear a lot of different opinions here. i think what most catholics woont is just a peaceful and orderly transition for the cardinals to come together in the 15-20 days after the end of the month and select a new pope. there are a lot of feelings about maybe there should be an african this time, maybe there should be someone from latin america with so many latin americans in the flock. i'm sure that's a possibility. but that's up to the cardinals. of course, arthel, as you know, there's a lot of politics involved, but catholics insist the decision is that which is god's will. and it's a process which has played out for many centuries before we were on this planet and i'm confident will after we're gone. arthel: yeah. god's will, but, you know, you're right, the politics come into play, and they're very powerful. and a lot of people want to sort of move it forward and have, dare say, a little more

progressive thinking coming from the vatican. >> you know, that's the truth. this is, this is a pope who himself spoke of aggressive secularism as in the united kingdom, they were working to legalize gay marriage, in france as well. in france they were making crosses illegal in local government activity. it was the pope who spoke out against such things. but in many ways across many parts of this world the people have moved on ahead more quickly than the church has, at least to hear it from some here today. and the hope is that the new pope will represent that forward thinking. the widely believed, though, that the next pope will be as conservative as this one. more than half of the cardinals now in position have been put there by the current pope. so it's a process that will play out, and the pope will have no part of it. he'll be in a cloistered monastery in the back. the church has made it clear he

won't have any part in the selection of the next pope. instead, he will continue to write. he, of course, has a new pacemaker in or the new batteries in his pacemaker, and he'll play a part in the church, certainly, but not to differ with the new pope or to clash in any way which is exactly how the last pope ended up abdicating his position when there were multiple popes that were claiming the papacy, and that was the great western schism. in 1415, as your guest mentioned before the commercial break, they figured it out then. if they can solve that, certainly they can solve this, arthel. arthel: all right. i know you'll be there on top of all of that. thank you, shep. >> you too, arthel. jon: new questions now about our own military readiness as the deadline nears for those massive cuts to the pentagon's budget. take a live look at washington. union activists there urging congress to stop what they call a reckless move. military leaders also warn that cuts would weaken america's armed forces just when our

enemies are beefing up theirs. our national security correspondent, jennifer griffin, live at the pentagon with a look at that story. jennifer? >> reporter: hi, jon. well, there are 16 days left for congress to act to, basically, overturn sequestration and turn this around. and there are no indications that either party plans to stop the sequester. this is very serious if you listen to the joint chiefs and deputy defense secretary. >> secretary panetta and i have been using the word "devastating" for 16 months now. and i testified last august to the consequences of sequestration, if it was to occur. and now the wolf's at the door. >> whether i began my career in a hollow army. i do not want to end my career in a hollow army. >> this would be the steepest, biggest reduction in total obligating authority for the defense department in history at a time when i will personally

attest to the fact that it's more dangerous than it's ever been. >> reporter: it has already had a significant impact on navy families in norfolk, virginia. when the navy announced last week that they would not have enough in its budget to deploy the uss truman to the persian gulf, that deployment was canceled on friday because of the looming budget cuts. the army chief said they would have to curtail training 80% of the ground forces, furlough 20,000 civilians for up to 22 days, 80% of whom live outside of the washington area and work at army depots and navy yards across the country. bases will have to be closed, and general odierno anticipates losing 100,000 army personnel if sequestration happens. 3,000 small businesses will lose army contracts and could face bankruptcy according to odierno. with all of this as a backdrop, the president is going to make an announcement tonight about troop levels in afghanistan announcing that 34,000 u.s. troops will be home a year from

now. the president has decided to cut the force in half a year before a complete withdrawal is expected in 2014. jon? jon: and against this backdrop we have north korea acting up and setting off nuclear or warheads or bombs anyway. jennifer driven at the pentagon, thank you. arthel: and coming up, an intense manhunt underway for a prisoner accused of stabbing a police officer and escaping. where he could be and how he managed to get away. plus, explosive new testimony in the trial of a woman accused of brutally murdering her lover. what jodi arias is now telling jurors about her past. >> throughout the fall i had been feeling suicidal, so i thought that that was kind of the point where i decided i wanted to, um, go through with that. so, um, i called my friend matt because he had guns, and i was going to ask him if i could borrow one because i wanted to kill myself. ♪ you know my heart burns for you... ♪

i'm up next, but now i'm sging the heartburn blues. hold on, prilosec isn't for fast relief. cue up alka-seltzer. it stops heartburn fast. ♪ oh what a relief it is!

arthel: "happening now", a crime story repped from a hollywood movie. a massive search underway after a prisoner being transferred across the country goes on the lam after stabbing one of his guards. casey stiegel live from dallas with more? casey? >> reporter: arthel, the suspect has a pretty big rap sheet. he was being held in miami for things like assault, kidnapping, burglary and sexual assault. then he was being transported to nevada to face sexual battery charges.

42-year-old alberto morales was being escorted by two miami-dade police officers when he reportedly became unruly on the plane from florida to houston where they had a layover. he was bumping his head on other passengers seats and then not allowed back on the connecting flight to vegas. so, the officers rented a car and planned on driving him. they drove from houston to dallas where they were supposed to meet a third detective and they made a pit stop at this wal-mart close to dfw airport. while one of the officers was inside using the restroom, morales is said to have broken the earpiece off his eyeglasses somehow stabbed the officer in front of him as they parking lot. he then got away, shackles and all. >> officer was stabbed by this gentleman, and officer gardenas has been taken to the hospital in dallas,

texas. he has been treated, is being treated. he is in serious but stable condition. there is a man hint going on in texas for mr. morales. >> reporter: a manhunt that involves multiple agencies including the u.s. marshal's service. morales clearly considered extremely dangerous. in fact he has been recently added to the texas department of public safety's top 10 most-wanted list. arthel? arthel: casey stiegel, thank you very much for that report. jon: some dramatic new testimony in the jodi arias murder trial. the arizona woman accused of stabbing and shooting her boy fwrend to death. the defendant telling jurors she was a victim of mental and physical abuse at the hands of travis alexander a claim people that know him strongly deny. take a look at this picture on the left. you can see what she looked like when they were together. on the right, let me switch that around. on the right, is what she looked like when they were together. on the left is what she looks like now. here is part of how she

described their tumultuous relationship. >> you said he was paying a different amount of attention to you. you maybe describe for us what you mean by that? >> yes. when he was in the mood or turned on, then he was very nice and paid attention to me. sometimes when we got together he was very loving and romanic. sometimes it was just animal listic -- animallistic. afterwards when he was done he was done for a while. jon: alicia acuna is following this story live from our los angeles bureau. alicia. >> reporter: jon, jodi arias also told the jury that she discovered travis alexander had an interest in child pornography, and he became furious when she suggested he get help. as part of increasingly abusive pattern he kicked

her during a particularly bad fight. >> it started me. it didn't hurt but it startled me. so i kind of left out an unexpected sound. i could be best described as a yelp sort of. can't really explain it. it was just unexpected. so it startled me and impact and the sound came out. and i think he misinterpreted because he said don't act like that hurts. he called me a [bleep]. and he kicked me in the ribs. and that hurt for real. but he attempted to kick me again and i put my hands out to block his foot and it clipped my hand and hit my finger. >> reporter: arias showed her healed finger to the jury. she regretted not getting medical attention at the time and keeping better records. a lot of testimony has also contained graphic details of their romanic life. arias admitted it is embarrassing discussing these things in front of her parents in the courtroom but jon, also there is travis alexander's family. jon?

jon: alicia acuna, thank you. arthel: for more on this let's bring in lis weill, fox news legal analyst and esther panich. good to see both of you. another thing that was said, arias said, travis alexander, the now deceased boyfriend being emotionally, physically, sexually abusive. weigh in on this bombshell. how does this affect the defense's position and prosecution's position and lis, i will start with you? >> the prosecution is still in very great shape. you said it exactly right. bombshell. this apparently happened. allegations apparently happened of conduct in january 2008. this is the first time we're hearing about it when the victim obviously is not around to twepd himself, not around to say anything else. all his friend, everybody supported him say there is no indication of that. forget about the friend for a second. forensics, dna. they went in. the police went in. searched his computer. searched his home. searched everything. no child important, nothing like that.

-- child porn. this is desperate attempt for this woman to maybe fabricate some things to keep her off the death penalty. arthel: esther, what do you make of it? >> i make these abusive situations that allegedly happened prior to travis's murder do show an ability for the defense to make out a battered woman syndrome case. this would explain straight self-defense. someone is coming at me. i will attack them first. battered woman's syndrome gives an explanation to why the someone who may not be an immediate danger at the time they kill their alleged abuser actually acted in that way at that time. the pornography or alleged child pornography. it goes to corroborate if his friends may not know him as well as they did, it definitely able to, they can then see that he may have beaten her without the friends knowing. at least would agree

battering happens behind closed doors. it is not open to the public. >> you said the exact word, made my case for me, corroboration. there is no corroboration. you're right, abuse happens behind closed doors, child pornography, that happens on the computer and happens in magazines. she said i saw magazines. i saw stuff on the computer there was nothing there. that takes away from her credibility. to come out this late with this, right now, when she is on, you know, in a second week of testifying for herself and this is the first we're hearing about all these horrible allegations? >> this is her trial. i don't know when, she was supposed to have a press conference or give up this information before that. this is when, it is expected that any evidence she has will come out. and of course the burden is not on her. it is on the prosecution and always reon the prosecution. >> she didn't talk to anybody. didn't confide to anybody. >> apparently she did. she told her roommate also a member of the mormon church, who suggested they both get counseling. that is from the reports i

read. >> that is about they're having sex. nothing about abuse. >> it was about the pictures on the pornography. arthel: on that note, the roommate who is also morm mon, they are mormon. he was mormon. is there any possibility here that perhaps arias is building up her character and perhaps she's concocting this story? i don't know, to sort of make up for the embarassment she had sex with her boyfriend? >> probably -- >> i think it adds, frankly, i think it adds to her embarassment if she is willing to stay with a man who is a pedophile. i don't know that he was. this is her allegation. obviously travis is not here to defend himself. if she is going to make so low that she would sleep with a pedophile, that causes more embarassment to her own position. so i don't know why she would make that up, because it doesn't reflect very well on her either. >> arthel, i can not wait

until cross-examination when the prosecutor will come up and go through all the different stories she told about, first she wasn't anywhere near. second when the murder happened. second, two masked men came in and killed. finally she said she did it. and in fact it was self-defense? really? 27 slits across the throat. then a bullet in your head for good measure. self-defense? arthel: esther, i will give you the last word, esther. as we know a dead man can not speak. >> right. arthel: i ask you, esther, in closing how does all this testimony considering that this guy is no longer here and can't speak up for himself, how does this all play on the jury? >> well the jury has to decide if this is first agree or second-degree murder or anything he isers. if it is first-degree murder, then she is looking at death penalty. if it is not, then she is not. if the jury believes she suffered from battered woman's syndrome, by overkilling is the symptomatic of battered woman's syndrome, it is

consistent. if she in fact was acting some kind of self-defense even if it wasn't straight self-defense they can not sentence her to death even if she is con tricked -- convicted of murder even if it was first degree. >> why get the gun a week geoff hand? that is not spur the moment. >> no, no. if she certainly thought she had to defend herself from something might happen, carrying the gun -- i'm not saying this case is very good from a defense perspective. they're starting to build up their battered woman's syndrome defense. having defend ad case of battered woman's syndrome i can appreciate how hard that is. i've done it myself. >> going to him, seeking him out. arthel: i will leave it right there, ladies. esther, lis, thank you very much for the lively debate. thanks, guys. >> thank you. jon: it's a nightmare crews. 4,000 people standed on a ship with spotty power. food is running out. toilets don't work.

welcome to the carnival. when these folks can expect relief. plus the day after pope benedict's stunning announcement who is on the short list to succeed him? the names most often mentioned as the next leader of the roman catholic church. >> they will begin to call him cardinal ratzinger again. he will not be called his holiness. even think morning am still per pleshgsed by it and shocked by it and wondering how myself it will work out. that is the plan. he will be a simple cardinal. he will not participate in the conclave. i'm a conservative investor.

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arthel: coincidence? or message from above? just hours after pope benedict xvi announced his resignation, flashes of lightning seen in the sky over st. peter's scare in vatican city. there are report that is the a lightning bolt struck the

basilica. no word of any damage. jon: well the pope's sudden resignation setting the stage for behind the scenes maneuvering with geopolitical overattorneys when he steps down. 118 cardinals from around the world will gather in the vatican to choose the next pope. already some in the church are pushing for a new leader from africa, maybe asia. some are pointing to leading contenders from latin america. steve hair fan live in miami for us. give us a sense of the thinking. a possible latin american pope, steve? >> reporter: jon, a lot of latin americans certainly do think so. there is real excitement in that conversation and in that possibility. the argument being made is that the future of the church is in the southern hemisphere. right now out of a world's $1.2 billion catholics, 42% are already living in latin america. so the argument goes the next pope should also be where the future is. of course the votes are not there yet. europe which has just 25% of the world's catholics, still

controls more than half of the votes for the next pope, jon. jon: who so are considered the main contenders from latin america? >> reporter: jon, five or six names keep coming up. among the top three are some extremely strong candidates. first the cardinal from brazil, cardinal scheree are. in he is in the world's most populous catholic nation. cardinal sandri from argentina. he had key top posts in vatican. somewhat of a longer shot, cardinal maradiagoo got a lot of attention with his work with the poor in latin america. these are all potential first latin american pope. jon? jon: steve harrigan keeping an eye on that live from miami. thank you. arthel: i like to think of myself as cool headed. but i would officially be in freak out mode on this one. 4,000 people, i would be. stranded on a cruise ship with barely enough power to

run the toilets. food is running out. people are sleeping in tents on the ship decks. when can folks on carnival cruise's triumph ship expect to come home? we'll talk about it.

jon: now a look at the some of the crime stories making

headlines. members of the los angeles police department are still being protected as the search continues for this fugitive ex-cop, christopher dorner. dorner, is the prime suspect in three murders in southern california. remember this video of angry citizens of bell, california, once the huge salaries of some city employees became public? half a dozen of those employees finally on trial. six officials are clarked with miss proep rating public funds. the owner after california food processing company is expected to be sentenced today to a price fixing scheme that affected tomato prices for major grocers and food companies. frederick salyer faces 30 years in prison but under a plea deal will likely serve a third of that time. arthel: right now a dream vacation turning into a nightmare. thousands remain stranded at sea aboard a hobbled carnival cruise ship amid horrible conditions. heather nauert on efforts to

get the ship back to port. >> reporter: this is pretty bad but we'll bring you the got news. the good news two tugboats arrived and they're pulling the cruise ship back to land. we're getting information on the conditions. it is called the triumph and now 270 miles off the coast of alabama. passengers are reporting that they're sleeping in tents on deck. sueage is running down the walls apparently. it is soaking the carpets we're hearing and toilets are not working. on top of this passengers are getting sick. this is hardly the ideal vacation. more than 4,000 frustrated passengers and crewmembers are on their way to the closest port that is mobile, alabama. we understand they should arrive by thursday night. that is if the weather continues to cooperate. the water, the currents are working in the ship's favor. so this should help speed up that entire trip. this trip, you can see, it is huge. it is 2 1/2 football fields long. it has been adrift since sunday. that is when a fire in the engine room knocked out

power not only to the engines but a large part of the ship. a u.s. coast guard ship fortunately was able to pull alongside the triumph yesterday, to help escort it back to shore the captain of the coast guard ship described the scene earlier today to fox news. listen to what he had to say. >> we had two carnal cruise ships rendezvoused on scene with triumph and transferred three tons of food supplies over to the triumph. about 8:30 p.m. last night, two tugs came alongside, both large ocean-going tugs and took triumph in tow. since last night we have been going 7 to 8 miles per hour to the north. we have current pushing us so, that probably -- decision carnival made to tow the vessel to mobile, alabama. >> reporter: that is sure a long trip. for its part, carnival cruise says it is doing the best it can. quote, all of our guests are safe and we're doing everything we can to make them as comfortable as

possible of passengers on the triumph got food and supplies last night. when another cruise ship called the legend rendezvoused with the stranded boat. passengers had a brief window to use the cell phones. they were able to draw a signal from the visiting boat. that's why we're starting to hear more about conditions of passengers on the ship. the alabama coast guard we hear is now on standby in order to respond to any crisis. they say they won't use their aircraft unless someone aboard the ship becomes seriously ill or injured. thursday is the day that the passengers expect to be back on land. it will be the fifth day without fresh food, water or electricity. arthel, a lot going on. arthel: people without medication. we're back in a moment.